Dear Danielle,

 

 I have come up with the following that I like and that are available on CPDL either in my version or someone else:

 

William Billings - A Virgin Unspotted

Guillaume Costeley - Allons gai

Edward Elgar - Ave Maria

Walford Davies - A Cradle Song

Hans Leo Hassler - Dixit Maria

Gustav Holst - This have I done

                           Lullay, my liking

Herbert Howells - Here is the little door

CS Lang  -  The time draws near

Corneilus Verdonck - Ave MAria

Peter Warlock - Bethlehem Down

                             Tyley, Tyrlow

Unknown - Angels from the realms of glory

 

I hope you enjoy the list. If you need any other information contact me on smacmus(a)yahoo.com

 

Stuart McIntosh

 

If you go with carols, one of  my choir's favourites from last year was the very bouncy Catalan carol Fum Fum Fum

http://www1.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Fum,_Fum,_Fum_%28Traditional%29

http://tinyurl.com/2g5eezy

 

We get almost all of our carols from the Oxford Book of Carols.    This was in many American ilbraries when I was there.

Danielle,

Go to Jeremy Rawson's page on CPDL.  He is a contemporary English composer and has three carols on the page:

Mother and Maiden

I saw a light

Behind an Inn

I discovered his music last Christmas, and my small church choir sang and enjoyed  "Behind an Inn" during our Carol Service.  I'm thinking of doing another his carols this year.

 

Regards

David

Danielle:

I have been where you are so many times in my musical career and there was always someone who helped me. I believe Choral folks are some of the most caring, considerate and kind people on this earth. It's like they have known you for years.

So, I would like to help you, too.

I have a publishing company, Sound Music Publicartions. We publishe superior vocal jazz charts and contemporary concert choir litereature.

Look over our catalog, find a selection you like and I will donate it to you and your group. If you are looking for Concert Choir literature, I suggestion you do the follow, go to: www.smpjazz.com    that will get you into my Website. Click on Catalgory by Grouping. Then on the left side of the site click on Church/Concert Choir and you will now be in the Concert Choir area. If you are looking for a holiday selection, gospel, whatever you will find it in this section of the site.

My email address is: Frank(a)SMPJAZZ.COM.... let me know if you need help. And Bless you for doing everything you can to have your choir sing good literature.

Cheers

Frank

 

Hi, Danielle.

 

Great question.  Of course there are 101 Mangificats and O Magnums up on cpdl a couple favorites are Tallis and Vittoria.

 

We did the following cpdl songs on our concert last year, and they were a smash hit:

 

Hassler - Verbum caro factum est

Mateo Fletcha - Riu, Riu, Chiu

Holst - In the Bleak Midwinter

Traditional - 25th Day of December (Fum, Fum, Fum)

Praetorius - Est ist ien Ros entsprungen

 

Another great site is the Christmas Songbook www.christmassongbook.net.  There are a lot of traditional carols, and spirituals up there.  We chose Behold that Star, and Go Tell It on the Mountain. - by adding a recap of the 'tag line' at the end of the piece, and adding a soloist doing improv, we were literally asked who's arrangment it was (Thomas Talley's original hymnal version!).

 

As mentioned before Howell's Here is the Little Door is another great one.

 

I hope that all helps!

 

Christopher McCafferty

Artistic Director, Illumni Men's Chorale

www.illumnimenschorale.com

Hi Danielle

 

I hope you will find lots of fantastic pieces for your group!  I would like to suggest that you also "make friends" with some local church and school choir directors in your area and ask if they might be willing to loan some music to you.  Any given church or school choir is probably only going to be using a small percentage of the seasonal music in its library, and I'm sure you can find some folks who will share :)

 

Julie Ford

You can find some great quality Christmas, and other numbers, at www.defordmusic.com . I have used several numbers from there and have had great success with them. She has traditional numbers as well as her own literature. The accompaniments are also very "pianistic". I found this website through CPDL.